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FATHER HORRIGAN. FATH ER O'MAHONY. FATHER HICCINS. ^ FATH ER O'N El I 







■/6H^ 



n / -y/^ 



THE 



Columbian 



Celebration 



THE PART TAKEN BY THE CONGREGATION OF ST. LOUIS BER- 
TRAND, WITH FULL TEXT OF THE LECTURE ON CATHO- 
LICITY IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, 



7a.XTX^S Lo\AvS O'W^Ni 



u 



LOUISVILLE, KY.: 
CHAS. A. ROGERS. 

1892. 



Em 






MY REVERED FATHER AND BElvOVED FRIEND, 

Very Rev. C. H. MCKENNfl, 0. P., 

PREACHER -GENERAL, 

DEDICATE THIS VOLUME, WITH THE ASSURED CONFIDENCE THAT 

THE ESTEEM IN WHICH I HOLD HIM IS CORDIALLY SHARED, 

NOT ONLY BY THE PEOPLE OF ST. LOUIS BERTRAND'S 

CONGREGATION, BUT BY THE MANY OTHERS 

FOR WHOM HE HAS SO ZEALOUSLY 

AND FAITHFULLY LABORED. 



PREFACE 



In writiiioj a preface to this unpretentious 
little volume, which is published with the ap- 
proval of our Prior, Very Rev. Father Horrigan, 
I do not intend to invest it with any of the airs 
of a book, but merely to say a few words of 
ex}tlanation that may insure a more favorable 
reception for this new wayfarer in the literary 
world. 

The publication of the lecture is an answer to 
a request that seemed to me to indicate the 
wish of the people of St. Louis Bertrand's 
congregation. That kind words in similar strain 
came from distant friends is an encouragement 
cordially appreciated ; but the manuscript would 
not have seen the light had it not been for 
the desire, so afiectionately expressed, by those 
before whom the lecture was delivered. 

The description of the part taken by the 
people of St. Louis Bertrand's in the Louisville 
Columbian parade is chiefly of local interest; 
but it has a further value as a contribution to 



6 



PREFACE. 



the history of a magnificent celebration, of which 
the Catholics of Louisville may justly feel proud. 

For those for whom this volume is particularly 
intended, I think its publication will have that 
special interest which comes of works done by 
members of a parish in the union of a family 
spirit. 

With feelings of peculiar gratification we can 
all look back on labors that were inspired by 
patriotism and religion ; and it will, therefore, 
be an added pleasure to keep in permanent form 
a memorial of our Columbian feast. 

The gratitude of priests and people is here 
publicly acknowledged, and with great pleasure, 
to the Satellites of Louisville. Besides the loan 
of their elegant chariot, kindly granted for 
Deza's use, they supplied us with many prop- 
erties, trappings and costumes. These largely 
contributed to the fine appearance of the 
parade. 

In connection with the publication of the 
lecture, I wish to put on record my deep sense 
of indebtedness to my esteemed friend, John A. 
Mooney, LL.D., of l^ew York. Generously 
he placed at my disposal the fruits of his ripe 



PREFACE. 



study, of which I have freely availed my- 
self. Moreover, he carefully revised the lecture 
so that it now appears enriched with farther 
benefits, for which my obligations to his friend- 
ship and learning are much increased. Grate- 
fully and cheerfully do I make this acknowl- 
edgment in testimony of a scholar and Chris- 
tian gentleman, whose pen is as ready as his 
mind is richly stored with treasures, that are 
ever at the service of God's holy Church. 

J. L. O'NEIL, O. P. 



CONVENT OF ST. LOUIS BERTRAND, 

Lonisville, Kij. 
FEAST OF ALL SAINTS 

OF THE 

DOMINICAN ORDER. 

November 9, 1892 




CHRISTOPHORO COLOMBO 



This engraving was made by A. Capriolo, in Rome, 159G. It was taken 
from a photographic collection of the same author. 

Madrid, 1st July, 1862. D. de Veragna. 



THE LOUISVILLE COLUMBIA^! PAPADE. 

'The Part Taken by St. Louis Bertrand's Congregation. 



When the Rt. Rev. Bishop McCloskey an- 
nouDced the commemoration in honor of Col- 
umbus, as prescribed by the Holy Father, the 
Catliolics of Louisville, priests and peo})le, made 
immediate preparations for a becoming dem- 
onstration. The result, as fully set forth in 
the daily press and in the Catholic Advocate of 
this city, was a splendid manifestation of patriot- 
ism and faith. Every parish jtarticipated, a 
wholesome rival r}' stimulating each one to 
generous eftbrts for the success of the com- 
bined display. Solemn masses, the singing of 
the Te Deum, ap[)ropriate sermons were the 
religious features of the festival, while the great 
night parade closed in splendor a day always 
to be remembered by the people of Louisville. 

It is estimated tliat fifteen thousand men took 
part in the procession, while one hundred thou- 
sand people viewed its passage. The city was 
thronged with visitors, while the citizens in o-en- 



10 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



eral manifested the liveliest interest in the cele- 
bration. Houses along the line of march were 
handsomely decorated and illuminated, our non- 
Catholic friends heartily joining with their Cath- 
olic neighbors. 

St. Louis Bertrand's people, it is admitted, 
took the post of honor. Considered as a spec- 
tacle and a living historical panorama, the dis- 
play presented by this congregation was truly 
magnificent. While discarding the conventional 
float, they offered a series of moving tableaux that 
in conception, appointments and presentation 
won the admiration of all. The plans had been 
designed by the Dominican Fathers who, in union 
with Mr. Thomas J. Batman, an able organizer 
and a gentleman of skill and experience, accom- 
plished the work made possible by the generosity 
of the people. Mr. Batman was effectively as- 
sisted by Mr. Wni. Sherley, and to both of these 
gentlemen the thanks of the parish are due. 
Only a few preliminary meetings were held, but 
contributions were liberal and enthusiasm ran 
high. All seemed animated by one spirit, a 
determination to make the parade a great public 
act of Catholic faith, in gratitude to God and in 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 11 

memory of His devoted servant, Christopher 
Columbus. 

The celebration opened on the morning of 
October 21st with a solemn high mass cele- 
brated by the Prior, Father Ilorrigan, assisted 
by Fathers O'Mahony and Iliggins. A brief 
address was delivered by Father O'Neil on 
patriotism and religion. 

The church was beautifully decorated — 
Papal, Columbian and United States flags in 
graceful profusion, and generous distribution 
of red, white and blue, starred and shielded 
bunting so displayed as to make a most beau- 
tiful effect. Tlie work reflected great credit on 
Miss Ellen O'Keil and Miss Ellen Aylward, the 
designers. 

During the day the scene was a lively one, all 
feeling that their repeated prayers in the 
Kosary had been answered, as the sun lighted 
up convent, school and church, all richly 
draped in red, white and blue, flags waving 
everywhere — Papal, Columbian, United States. 

The Dominican Sisters labored untiringly, 
contributing in many Avays, by the work of 
their deft fingers, to the ornamentation of the 



12 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

various equipages. It must have been a grati- 
licatiou to them as they watched the departure 
of their pretty girls grouped in the tableaux. 

At 6:30 p. M., when the procession moved 
from the church every man was at his post. A 
loud bugle-blast, blown by a trumpeter on foot, 
announced the approach of our division. It 
was headed by C. A. Curtin, as grand mar- 
shal, wlio was accompanied by the following 
aides: Dennis Conway, James Wolfe, L. II. 
Bell, T. J. Conway, John Reardon, T. J. O'Sul- 
livan, Mark Feighan, C. A. Kogers, Edward 
Leahy, A. D. Ross, Augustine Ross, Joseph 
Hetiger, Edward McDonough, M. Moriarty, 
W. N. Webb, P. Delany, John Moriarty, Ed- 
ward Wagner, A. And, A. J. Fitzgerahl, John 
Hetiger and J. J. Score. All were well mounted 
and rendered effective service alono^ the line of 
our division. 

Next came the Liederkranz band of twenty 
pieces. They were followed by the bearer of the 
parish banner— J. Edelin. Accompanying torches 
lighted it up, and all could read 

St. Louis Bertrand's. 

" Columbus having returned from his iirst 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 13 

voyage, proceeds in state from Palos to Bar- 
celona, to meet Ferdinand and Isabella." 

This explanation gave to the witnesses zest 
and nnderstanding for the cavalcade that fol- 
lowed in martial array. The royal standard- 
bearer came first. Frank Breslin was a worthy 
knight. His Spanish costume and the exquisite 
silk banner, richly embroidered and beautifully 
mounted, were admiringly observed. He rode 
well a spirited charger. 

Here it may be said of all the costumes, that 
they were not only elegant in material and rich 
in decoration, but historically correct; and of 
the horses, in general, that they were all in good 
form, richly caparisoned and skilfully managed. 
The standard-bearer was escorted by a guard, 
P. McGlynn, James Meyer, J. J. Kenealy, D. 
Meagher, M. J. Maloney. 

A detachment of Columbus' sailors came 
next, all carrying arquebuses, and appropriately 
costumed: Thomas Conway, Patrick Monahan, 
W. Doyle, J. Gilniartin, P. Muldoon, P. "Kil- 
kenny, John Dealy, B. Gallagher, T. Higgins 
and L. Smith. 

Another band of sailors (W. Snell, D. J. 



14 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

Rearcloii, M.IIughes, J. M.Dolan, Joseph Woods, 
M. Coleman, J. P. Glynn, P. McGljnn, M. 
Flynn and F. Greenougli) carried specimen 
products of the new world. There were par- 
rots alive, and stuffed ; hirds of various plumage ; 
a live alligator, corn, tobacco, maize, gourds, 
squashes and yams. Mingling with these and 
showing them to fine advantage were men 
wearing red dominos and carrying red lights. 
Similar groups accompanied the seven Indians, 
who were next in line. In single file they 
walked, bearing spears and bows and arrows. 
It was a picturesque scene. The Indians were 
represented by John Toomey, John Lawless, 
W. Connell, P. Gleem, John Iledley, Patrick 
Burke and D. Kenealy. 

With befitting escort — forty cavaliers, all 
Spanish and knightly — Columbus, personated 
by Mr. T. J. Batman, next appeared, finely 
mounted and splendidly arrayed, carrying in his 
hand a beautiful ^silk banner* (the standard 
of the Admiral). He was the Columbus of the 
parade. His escort, all richly attired and present- 
ing the finest mount of the evening, included 

-=TIii8 banner .-md the royal standard, were the work of 3Irs. M. H. 
Feighan. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 15 

Robert E. Watson, Edward Hetiger, Bernard 
Gordon, Samuel Joyce, John Eusli, Wm. Ansbro, 
John ConAvay, M. J. Cassin, P. Lncy, W. Lucy, 
T. Langan, T. Wagner, J. McKiernan, M. Gahen, 
M. J. Kearns, J. McDonnell, P. Fallon, M. 
Lancaster, J. J. Hennessy, ]). J. Ileffernan, 
C. J. Callahan, M. J. Reilly, J. Dealy, J. Evans, 
G. Mutchman, W. Iliggins, W. McGrath, E. 
Wagner, M. Moriarty, J. Moriarty, J. Duane, 
J. B. Wathen, J. Reardon, D. Moriarty, S. C. 
Toomey, L. Greenongh, W. R. Ilensley, J. Over- 
berg, E. Cowan and M. Callahan. 

Next came a splendid tableau — Ferdinand 'and 
Isabella presenting to Columbia, Faith, Hope 
and Charity. The setting and costuming were 
superb. Keil Ditto was Ferdinand ; Miss Kate 
Green, Isabella; Miss Mary Kelly, Columbia; 
and the little Misses Blanche Gordon, Eliza 
Hannan and Mary Walsh, bearing their respect- 
ive symbols, represented Faith, Hope and 
Charity. Red lights and flambeaux were all 
around. 

Then the magnificent chariot of Rex, kindly 
loaned by the Satellites, appeared, brilliant with 
electric lights and containing Rev. J. C. 



16 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

O'Mahony, 0. P., as Archbishop Deza. A 
purple and white standard proclaimed " Diego 
di Deza, O. P., Archbishop of Toledo, Primate 
of Spain." Under this was the follow^ing 
quotation from a letter of Columbus to his 
son Diego : " The Lord Bishop, Deza, has always 
favored me and has ever desired my glory since 
I came into Castile." Two pages, handsomely 
attired — Tello Webb and John Dunn — stood on 
the steps behind ; James Connell, in Spanish 
costume, drove the four horses ; George Kilcourse 
acted as crozier-bearer ; Thomas Batman, Jr., 
held the mitre, and ^eh. Webb bore aloft the 
archiepiscopal cross. A pretty feature of the 
chariot was the grouping of three little boys — 
Eddie Hetiger, Eugene Iletiger and Willie Gor- 
don, in sailor suits crossed with red, white and 
blue. 

The next carriage contained Very Rev. M. A. 
Horrigan, 0. P., personating Las Casas. The de- 
vice here displayed read : " Las Casas, Protector 
of the Indians and First Abolitionist in America." 
Three little sailor pages, attired as those in Deza's 
chariot, occupied the first seat — Willie Condon, 
Mattie Brennan and Willie Brady. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 17 

The episcopal cross, the mitre and the crozier 
were held by James Duaiie, James O'Neil and 
Richard Langan. 

After this the emblem read was : " Father 
Louis Cancer, O. P., the first to shed his blood 
in territory now belonging to the United States, 
June 20, 1549." He was represented by Eev. J. 
R. Higgins, 0. P., accompanied by two acolytes : 
Joseph Coakley and Charles Score. Then came 
the announcement, "St. Louis Bertrand, 0. P., 
Apostle of New Granada, and Wonder-worker 
of theNew World— 1562-1569." In this carriage 
rode Rev. J. L. O'Neil, 0. P., with Willie Kil- 
course and Henry Lancaster as acolytes. Sur- 
rounding each carriage was a troop of footmen 
bearing torches, red lights and Roman candles. 

The picture presented by the priests in their 
Dominican black and white, and by the acolytes 
in their appropriate colors, with mingling of red, 
white and blue, was in itself unique, but the 
historical significance of the moving tableaux 
was especially admired. 

The line was closed by the spectacle of the 
girls. Three conveyances bore them, and every 
one who saw and heard them could well under- 



18 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



stand why we were proud of our girls. They 
represented the States and Territories and the 
District of Columbia. The States were in white, 
the Territories in black, the District of Columbia 
in red, white and bkie. All carried their hair 
flowing. Crowns of red, white and blue, topped 
with gilt stars, were worn by the States ; crowns 
without stars by the Territories. Across each 
girl's breast a red, white and blue sash was worn, 
on which was displayed on white ground in red 
and blue letters, the name of her State or Terri- 
tory. They all carried Columbus flags, while 
the vehicles were loaded with bunting. United 
States, Papal and Columbian flags. Japanese 
lanterns shed soft and many-colored rays over 
all, while the eflTect was heightened by the con- 
stant glow of the red lights. Rockets were sent 
up at regular intervals by running attendants 
in fantastic costumes. A mounted body-guard 
escorted the girls' conveyances— Harry Manly, 
G. J. Hackemiller, James McDonough, Vincent 
De Courcy, Harry Colgan, John McDonald, 
Martin Callahan, M. Greenough, D. Moriarty, 
T. Brown, Richard Quinn, R. E. O'Sullivan. 
Enthusiastically the girls waved their flags and 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 19 

sang in a spirited manner, to the air of America, 
the beautiful Columbian ode written by Rev. 
W. D. Kelly for the Catholic Columbian^ of 
Columbus, 0. Copies were kindly sent to us by 
the editor of the Columbian. We were not only 
grateful for the courtesy, but heartily glad for 
the liberal spirit of the Columbian in making 
gratuitous distribution of the ode to Catholic 
schools. 

A COLUMBIAN ODE. 

With swift and tireless tread, 
Four hundred years have sped, 

Four ages flown, 
• Since hither o'er the main, 

Columbus brought from Spain 
That faith whose gifts and gain 

Were here unknown. 

Her patronage to claim, 
His flagship Mary's name 

Aloft displayed ; 
And as the deep they braved, 
From dangers to be saved, 
The mariners oft craved 

Her gracious aid. 



20 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



Hymns in her honor sweet 
Rose from the little fleet 

Morn, noon and night. 
With pious prayers that she, 
Across the trackless sea, 
Their guiding star would be. 

Their beacon bright. 

And when the Pinta's gun 
Proclaimed the goal was won, 

The voyage o'er, 
Columbus, sword in hand, 
Knelt on the sea-kissed strand, 
And named the first-found land 

San Salvador. 



Four hundred years, and lo ! 
The light whose genial glow 

Was kindled there, 
Now, with effulgent beams, 
O'er all this new world streams. 
Than its revealer's dreams, 

Far, far more fair. 

Oh, land of all lauds best, 
In that discovered West, 
His name revere ! 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 21 


Who, scorning storm and scath, 


Defying wrack and wraith, 


Enriched 


with Christian faith 


This 


hemisphere. 


The thirteen original States rode in a tallyho; 


the thirty-one, later admitted, in a large wagon, 


and the Territories 


and District of Columbia in a 


third conveyance. 




The following gi 


rls participated : 


Fannie Kennedy 


3Iaine. 


Sallie O'Connor 


Xeiv Hampshire. 


Susie Becker . . 


Massachusetts. 


EllaHensly . . 


Rhode Island. 


Bertha Hensly . 


Connecticut. 


Teresa O'Malley 


New York. 


Mary Duane . . 


. . . . Xew Jersey. 


Carrie Rickert . 


Delaware. 


Xellie Brown . . 


Maryland. 


Mary Brown . . 


Virginia. 


Josie Houlihan . 


North Carolina. 


Laura DeCourcy 


South Carolina. 


Julia Woods . . 


Georgia. 


Mary O'Malley . 


Texas. 


Winifred Flaherty 


.... Vermord. 



22 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

Sarah Keegan Pennsylvania. 

Mary Deely Indiana. 

Lillie Gordon Illinois. 

Clara Flaherty Ohio. 

Annie Ilannan Kentucky. 

Mary Edelen Tennessee. 

Mary Egan Alabama. 

Mary Coleman ...... Mississippi. 

I^ora Ahearu Louisiana. 

JSTellie Connanghton .... Florida. 

Lillie Cambron Colorado. 

Mary Eirck Michigan. 

Josie Gallery . Wisconsin. 

Gertrude Cambron .... Idaho. 

Alice Devaney Montana. 

Bessie Dolan JVyotning. 

Hannah Keefe Nevada. 

Maggie Mooney Washington. 

Mary Finnegan Oregon. 

:N"ellie Brown Kansas. 

Katie Lee Nebraska. 

Delia Hughes Arkajisas. 

Mary Hughes California. 

Katie Dolan West Virginia. 

Katie Lucy Missouri. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 23 

Nellie Ahearn ..'.... Iowa. 

Annie Diiane Minnesota. 

Maggie Iloulihan North Dakota. 

Josie Hartnett South Dakota. 

Josie Dwyer Utah. 

Bridget Flannigan ... Arizona. 

Mary Crotty New Mexico. 

Elsie Edelen Indian Territory. 

Katie Brennan Alaska. 

Josie Reardon Oklahoma. 

Pliilomena Mutchman . . . Dist. Columbia. 

The following members of the congregation 
took part in the procession as torch-bearers, 
carriers of red lights and Roman candles : 

T. McTighe, P. T. Conway, F. H. Clay, J. 
Eiler, J. E. Brown, H. Brady, E. P. Dwyer, J. 
Fitzgerald, J. Hennessey, J. Kilkenny, F. Mc- 
Guire, J. Rossfield, J. Sheehy, Thomas Sheehy, 
J. P. Winn, J. Higgins, J. Kenealy, Wm. Brod- 
erick, Lewis Rafferty, John O'Connell, Thomas 
Broderick, M. Brown, M. Connolly, W. Con- 
nolly, James Cody, Edward Crowley, Cosmas 
Meagher, J. E. Collins, John Duffy, J. Crotty, 
H. A. Crotty, J. T. Chalk, W. J. Chalk, R. 
Crowley, Frank Brown, W. Doyle, James O'Neil, 



24 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



E. Dolan, J. O'Malley, T. Dwyer, A. Delany, 
W. Delany, W. Flahive, J. Fanning, E. Fanning, 
M. Grogan, J. Gallery, D. Lucy, J. Graham, M. 
Kennedy, J. Kelly, T. Kilcourse, T. Kelly, H. 
Kennedy, M. Kilkenny, T. Lynch, E. Leahy, J. 
Linihan, P. Muldoon, W. McHugh, E. Mutch- 
man, E. Mitchell, P. Monahan, N. McDevitt, J. 
McCue, J. J. Murphy, F. J. Monahan, C. Maher, 
J. Mutchman, M. Morgan, E. ;N"orton, J. Norton, 
W. O'Connell, F. O'Connell, J. O'Sullivan, P. 
Kilkenny, T. Lynch, Eobert Mitchell, James 
Norton, Eichard Norton, Austin Delany, M. J. 
Eeardon, E. Fanning, J. Fitzgerald, F. O'Con- 
nell, M. O'Malley, W. Eeilly, M. J. Eeardon, J. 
Eeilly, M. Shaughnessy, John L. Sullivan, J. 
Snell, M. J. Walsh, N. Walsh, J. J. Wynn, 
Joseph Wynn, J. J. Moriarty, John Casey, P. 
McAuliffe, Timothy O'Sullivan, M. Baldwin, T. 
Eeagan, Timothy Kelley, Michael Hogan, P. 
Cardift, J. Broderick, Joseph Gilmore, M. Egan, 
M. Broderick, J. Hughes, John Monahan, J. 
Bell, P. Glynn, J. Delany, J. Kelly, T. Kelly, 
J. Eoss, L. Murphy, Thomas Higgins, M. Duane, 
P. Duane, J. Devany, T. Devany, F. Conway,' 
Patrick O'Neil, D. Flanagan, M. Flanas^an, J. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. liD 

Hetiger, Jr., O. Flanagan, Thomas Muldoon, J. 
Ford, F. Watson, Thomas Duffy, J. Cavanagh, 
T. Cavanagh, J. Lamont, J. Kearney, B. Curley, 
P. Degnan, J. McCabe, J. Tobin, Wm. Cuff, T. 
Moore, Joseph Gilmore, John Donnelly, J. Ker- 
rigan, Wm. Rush, John Slavin, Timothy Mc- 
Donough, Philip Larkin, Geo. Gleason, P. 
Neaghan, J. Mooney, Philip Stark, J. L. O'Neil, 
T. Swift, J. D. Ilennessy, W. T. Hennessy, Pat- 
rick Murphy, Joseph Kennedy. 

Others failed to send in their names, but 
according to the estimate on the night of the 
parade, there were about five hundred men in 
line, besides the girls and boys who participated 
in the procession. It was a glorious event for 
Catholicity in Louisville, and the people of 
St. Louis Bertrand's may, in a special manner, 
be congratulated on their beautiful, historical 
pageantry. 

Supplementary to the parade, there was also 
a celebration in our church on Sunday evening, 
October 23d. The exercises commenced with 
a reproduction of the tableau of Ferdinand 
and Isabella presenting Faith, Hope and 
<Jharity to Columbia. To this w^as added a 



26 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



fine setting of Cokinibus and some of his sail- 
ors. .The Blessed Sacrament had been transfer- 
red to a private oratory. The sanctuary floor 
and the altar steps were covered with red, white 
and blue, while a multitude of lights from can- 
dles, gas and Japanese lanterns rendered the 
scene brilliant. It was a fine sight. The follow- 
ing programme (souvenirs of which, printed in 
blue and red on fine white paper, were distrib- 
uted to the audience) was excellently rendered: 

PAKT I. 

1. Organ— Tannhiiiiser March R. Wagner. 

Prof. Charles Weiss. 

2. '* Night Shades no Longer " Rossini. 

Grand Chorus. 

3. Soprano Solo—*' Show me Thy Ways, 

O Lord," Torreiite. 

Mrs. M. L. Stark. 

4. Trio—" Protect us Through the Coming 

Nigbt," Curschmau. 

Mrs. B. M. Talbot, Miss Ida Hodapp and Edward Probist. 

5. Soprano Solo— ''Prayer" Donizetti. 

Mrs. M. Doherty. 

6. " The Marvellous Work," from Creation . Haydn. 

Solo by Mrs. K. Costigan. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 27 

PAET II. 

1. Alto Solo— " Oh, Kestin the Lord" . Mendelssohu. 

Miss Mary Roepe. 

2. " Mighty Jehovah " Bellini. 

Bass Solo by J. Roche. 

3. Soprano Solo — ''Judith" Concoue. 

Mrs. K. Costii^-an. 

4. BassSolo— "Fili Redemptor Mimdi" . .Mozart. 

Joliii Hodapp. 

5. " luflam Hiatus " Rossini. 

Solo by Mrs. M. Doberty. 

6. Grand Chorus — " A Columbian Ode" 

Rev. W. D. Kelly. 

The Girls' Choir (representiiiir the States). 

To those ladies and gentlemen who kindly 
volunteered their services, we are all indebted. 

Professor Charles Weiss, organist of St. 
Louis Bertrand's, was director of the concert. 
Ilis work was well done. 

Between the two parts of the concert, the 
lecture on ''Catholicity in the Discovery of 
America" was delivered. At the close of 
the concert the girls representing the States 
and Territories, who had been so placed in 
the chnrch as to form a brilliant red, white 



28 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

and blue star, sang, in fine voice, the Columbian 
Ode. At the words "his flagship Mary's name 
aloft displayed," they waved banners bearing, 
with cross and star, the name " Santa Maria." 
At the words '^ and named the first-found land 
San Salvador," they waved similar streamers 
marked " San Salvador." It was a beautiful 
scene and was loudly applauded. The church 
was thronged. Many non-Catholics were pres- 
ent. In the sanctuary the following priests 
occupied seats : Fathers Felix, Bonaventure 
and Edward, of the Passionists ; Fathers Kaftb, 
Creary, Mackin, Walsh, T. W. White, Crane, 
Sheridan, Westermann, Ilerberth, Hart, French, 
Zabler, Thome, the Very Rev. Father Ilor- 
rigan, O. P., and Fathers O'Mahony, O. P., and 
Higgins, O. P. 

At the conclusion of the lecture, Mr. T. J. 
Batman, in his robes as Columbus, arose and 
proposed that the congregation would express 
its sentiments with regard to the publication of 
the discourse in pampldet form. He spoke very 
happily of the recent festivities. Mr. Mat. 
O'Doherty, who had been one of the orators on 
tlie night of the procession, responded in a neat 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 29 

speech and earnestly seconded the proposal to 
have the lecture published as a souvenir of the 
occasion. Mr. Batman submitted the motion 
and it was loudly carried. 

I made acknowledgment of this compliment, 
as my feelings prompted, and with the consent 
of the Prior, Very Rev. Father Horrigan, with 
gratitude to the people, and with cordial recog- 
nition of the kindness of the gentlemen who 
inaugurated the movement, I agreed to issue this 
lecture. I sincerely trust it will be of service 
in the cause of truth. 

J. L. 0':N'eil, o. p. 



J. M. J. D. 



"CATHOLICITY IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It is not an easy task that is assumed by the 
lecturer, who, on this fourtli centenary of the 
discovery of America, would speak of the name 
and fame of the great Admiral with whose 
praises two continents ring. The difficulty does 
not arise from a scarcity of materials ; the embar- 
rassment is rather one of riches. Current litera- 
ture teems with Columbian articles, and mighty 
presses have been taxed to meet the demand for 
volumes and articles — biographical, historical, 
critical — bearing the discoverer's name. 

Church and State have united to honor the 
great navigator ; the ceremonies of religion 
gracefully and appropriately blending with the 
splendor of civic pageantr3\ Over our dear 
country and over the two Americas, the glory 



•32 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



of his triumph has been proclaimed. In the 
loud-swelling chorus, our's is no uncertain voice. 
Of right have we Catholics intoned the hymn 
of praise, and in the strength and justice of our 
faith we sustain the nation's " Te Deum." And 
as the glad sounds rise, gathering might from 
East and West, from North and South, let the 
friars' voices be heard, for their's is an assured 
and honored place. 

I stand here as a Catholic, a priest, a friar, 
to speak in the name of our labors during these 
four hundred years, and of our rights born of 
those labors and oft sealed in blood. For many 
reasons it is a pleasure thus to speak, and one 
dare surmount difficulties and flout criticism in 
the face of so honorable a duty. 

Catholicity is stamped on the face of this 
broad continent ; its seal was set twenty-five 
years before Luther rebelled against the Holy 
See. A loyal son of the Pope, Columbus, planted 
the Cross on the shores of the newly-found 
world. And this sign shall remain, and in it 
sliall we conquer. The rage of its enemies will 
av^ail nought. Even nature does and will pro- 
claim it. Rivers and lakes, valleys and mount- 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 33 

aiiis, towns and cities, whole provinces bear 
names telling of Catholic faith and conferred by 
Catholic explorers. Strangers who came to the 
JSTew World at a much later day have changed 
many of these names. Cat Island, or Wat- 
ling's Island, instead of San Salvador, can not 
be claimed as an improvement on the Catholic 
Christian name conferred by Columbus on the 
first land he sighted. 

But truth will not down, and, therefore, 
neither will Catholicity. To every intelligent 
thinker the Church in America is a great fact; 
to us it is a glorious pride. We came with 
Columbus. Our priests did not wait for colonies 
to be formed. They accompanied the pioneers. 
A Yicar Apostolic, appointed by Rome, sailed 
with the Admiral on his second voyage. There 
is no positive record that Columbus took with 
him a priest on his first voyage, though the Fran- 
ciscans claim that a Friar Minor sailed in the 
Admiral's caravel. Considering the devotion of 
Columbus, the tradition of the Franciscans 
seems well founded. Beyond question, however, 
the hardships of the explorers were shared by the 
missionaries. The chapel was raised beside the 



34 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

fort, and they gathered around the altar before 
they had even the first conveniences of a pri- 
meval forest home. As John Gilmary Shea well 
says, "the history of the Church is interwoven 
in the whole fabric of the country's annals. 
She announced Christ to almost every tribe 
from one ocean-washed shore to the other, and 
first to raise altars to the living God, her minis- 
try edified, in a remarkable degree, by blame- 
less Uves and often by heroic deaths, alike the 
early settlers, the converted Indians and those 
who refused to enter her fold." 

This commemoration in honor of Columbus 
ought, therefore, to be particularly Catholic, 
l^either Italy, the land of his birth, nor Spain, 
which he so gloriously served, nor even Amer- 
ica, that he discovered, can solely claim him. 
The Church that gave him inspiration, and for 
the spread of whose spiritual kingdom belonged 
and strove, proclaims him her son and offers him 
for the admiration of all nations. But among 
the people within her fold we have the first right 
to exalt his name and to announce to the world 
that in America the memory of Columbus is 
and shall forever be blessed. And in the fulness 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 35 

of our Catholic pride our spirit of loyalty is 
ennobled and our love for country sanctified 
by the grace of religion. 

The purpose of this lecture being to present a 
view of the influence and work of the Church in 
the discovery of America, it is proper that we 
consider those who, it is said, preceded Columbus 
in the passage across the Atlantic, and brought 
the faith to these shores. Of these expeditions 
it may safely be said that Columbus knew noth- 
ing. In no manner, therefore, do they detract 
from the merit of his discovery. 

In the story of the voyage to America, sup- 
posed to have been made by St. Brendan, of 
Ireland, and of the voyages of the Northmen 
several centuries later, there is a strange mino;. 
ling of poetry, legend and chronicle. The trans- 
lation of the Irish manuscripts now lying in 
different European libraries may yet shed li^-ht 
on the story of St. Brendan. According to 
Colgan in his "Acta Sanctorum Hibernige," our 
Irish hero, who was Abbot and Bishop of Clon- 
fert, sailed from the bay of Tralee, accompanied 
by some of his monks, in the year 545. It 
is stated that he landed at Chesapeake Bay 



30 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

and anchored in what is now Portsmouth Har- 
bor, Va. It'is also stated that he travelled west- 
ward over land for fifteen days till he came to 
a river — the Ohio — and that he remained in this 
country for seven years, during which time he 
converted many of the natives. The manuscripts 
of St. Brendan, as they are called, are appealed 
to in support of these statements, but nothing 
absolutely certain has been established. His 
voyage, we are told, is mentioned in various 
manuscripts, German, Italian, Portuguese, etc., 
written during the middle ages ; but before com- 
mitting ourselves for or against the chiims made 
for the saint, we must await the judgment of 
honest and laborious research. 

The motive, and a probable explanation, of 
this supposed venture of St. Brendan may be 
found in one of St. Patrick's prophecies. Look- 
ing over the western waters, he foretold the 
coming of a man who would find the promised 
land. It is not improbable that the sailor-monk 
felt the inspiration of the Apostle's prophetic 
spirit and strove to realize it. As Aubrey de Ycre 
says, Ireland was then the "lamp of the Korth 
wiien all the world was night;" and as her sons 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 37 

dared the waves to carry the light of trutli 
over Europe they may well have tempted 
uiikno^vn seas to carry that light to lands 
unknown. 

The story is a glorious one. Iceland they had 
reached, and there they left eight martyred 
saints. That the Irish went still further we can 
not absolutely deny. With O'Curry, we must 
regret that the original record has been marred 
by exaggerations. Divested of these extrava- 
gances, the result of enthusiasm and of a poet- 
ical imagination, we are told that the story of 
St. Brendan's voyage is preserved with historical 
completeness, or, at least, sufficiency, in the man- 
uscripts already mentioned. These manuscripts, 
by different authors and w^ritten by different 
hands, are probably of monastic origin and date 
from the tenth century. Thirteen are in the 
National Library, Paris ; one is in the Bodleian 
Library, Oxford, and one in the Episcopal 
Library, of Nuremburg. Among the manu- 
scripts of Trinity College and the Royal Irish 
Academy, Dublin, are some on St. Brendan. 
There is one in the Marsh Library, which has 
been published by Cardinal Moran, and there 



38 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

are some at Monte Casino, the Vatican, and in 
many other public libraries of Europe. 

Usher and Humboldt speak of St. Brendan's 
voyage with respect. Long before either of these 
learned men. Blessed James of Yoragine, a Do- 
minican, Bishop of Genoa, referred to it in his 
famous " Golden Legend." Montalembert says 
of these " Visions of St. Brendan," as the manu- 
scripts are sometimes called, that " they are 
always wonderfully penetrated b}^ the spirit of 
God and of theological truth." Ozanam declares 
that they are worthy of being reckoned among 
the poetic sources of the " Divina Commedia." 
And Canon O'Hanlon, whose learning and re- 
search are well known, writes that ''the voyage 
of St. Brendan may be regarded as the Christian 
Odyssey, which frequently charmed monastic 
circles and excited their imaginations while living 
in the cloisters, from his time and during the 
middle ages."* 

'•• I admit that we can not as yet clearly establish the story 
of direct communication between Ireland and America before 
the Northmen came, but we do know how much these same 
Northmen are indebted for the faith to the Isle of Saints. We 
know also that in one of their chronicles they speak of a jior- 
tion of the American coast wliere Irish vessels had* formcrlv 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 39 

We can not, therefore, agree with Professor 
Fiske, of Harvard, when he says of the not im- 
probable Irish discoveries that " the questions 
raised are often of small importance and belong 
not so much to the serious workshop of history 
as to its limbo prepared for learned trifles." 
More just, we think, is the conclusion of Major- 
General Butterfield, U. S. A., a close student of 
history and in particular of the manuscripts of 
St. Brendan, plate copies of some of which he 
brought from Paris and presented to the library 
of Union College, New York. " If," he says, 
'' a Catholic Irishman was not the first discoverer 
of America he caused its subsequent discovery 
by Ericson and Columbus." 

landed ; and John Gilmary Shea positively declares that an 
Irish bishop, John, of Skalholt, in Iceland, came to Vinland 
(New England) long before the arrival of Bishop Eric, who 
was appointed to the see of Gardar by Paschal II., in 1112. 
Kichard H. Clarke, in his "Deceased Bishops," speaks of 
this Eric as the tirst Bishop on American soil. This writer 
seems desirous of giving the Scandinavians the credit of the 
first settlement on our shores. He even cites the round tower 
found near Newport, 11. I., as a proof of the Northmen's 
settlement, though no such towers are found in Iceland, Den- 
mark or Greenland. Why not refer the Newport tower to its 
more likely origin, Ireland ? 



40 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

That Catholicity was established in Greenland 
is clearly settled. As the story runs, Iceland 
assumed definite shape as a Scandinavian colony 
about the year 874. Two years later, one of the 
settlers, Gunnbjorn, was driven by foul weather 
to the coast of Greenland where he and his com- 
panions passed the winter. He returned to Ice- 
land l)ut we hear of no attempt to follow his 
accidental discovery till 983. At that time Eric 
the Red, who was outlawed for murder, determ- 
ined to search for Gunnbjorn's land. He found 
it and spent several years in exploration. Later 
he secured colonists from Iceland and a perma- 
nent settlement was made. 

About the year 1000, Leif Ericson, the son of 
Eric the Red, visited ^N'orway where King Olaf, 
who had recentl}^ been converted, won him over 
to the Faith. Returning to Greenland, Leif 
brought missionaries and began the conversion 
of his people. These, be it remembered, were of 
diiFerent stock from the old Icelanders formerly 
visited by the Irish missionaries. Among Leif 's 
neophytes was his mother, Thjodhilda, who built 
in the year 1002, a church whose ruins may still 
be seen. Catholicity spread rapidly and flourished 



THE COLUMBIAN CEF^EBRATIUN. 41 

for nearly four centuries. Bislioprics were estab- 
lished, whose lines of succession have been clearl}^ 
traced. Convents and cliurches were built; and 
among them, as Lacordaire states in his memorial 
to the French people, the Dominicans had an 
establishment early in the thii-teenth century. 
The ruined convent was found in the seventeenth 
century by some Dutch explorei's. It is supposed 
that tlie Greenland colonies were swept away by 
the black plague or by some similar disorder. 
Others declare that they were exterminated by 
tlie Esquimaux, whose heathen descendants now 
occupy the land. In 1448 Pope Nicholas Y., 
writing to an Iceland bishop, recalls the story of 
Greenland's Catholicity (enduring, as lie puts 
it for six hundred years) and urges that help be 
brought to theni if any survive. 

Recurring to the facts in the Greenhmd settle- 
ment, one must smile at cultured Boston erecting 
a statue to Leif Ericson as " the first discoverer 
of America," and with Mr. Fiske, we can laugh 
at the absurd conclusion of tlie Massachusetts 
Historical Society instituting a comparison be- 
tween Agamemnon and Leif, between the Iliad 
of Homer and the Saaa of Eric the Red. While 



42 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

we Catholics deplore the passing away of these 
sturdy converted Northmen, we are glad to pro- 
claim the facts that tell of the planting of our 
faith in Greenland centuries ago. 

'!< 'h ^ >ii ^1< 

During the fifteenth ceutury the spirit of com- 
merce and of exploration was particularly active. 
A new impulse liad moreover been given to 
affairs by the improved methods of manufacturing 
paper, and by the invention of tlie art of i)rint- 
ing. The mariner's compass had made navigation 
more secure, and thus hastened the all-important 
moment when a new workl would be revealed. 

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 having 
driven a troop of refugees — G-reek scholars — 
from the barbarism of the Turk to the hospitality 
of their western Christian neighbors, a new learn- 
ing was brought into Europe, and with it a new 
intellectual movement. Italy was especially 
favored. Her welcome to the stranger, to his 
literature and thought, was indeed princely, and 
Rome and Florence led and ruled the world of 
science, of art, of learning. 

The Italian States, lighting among themselves 
for territory and power, contended even more 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 43 

earnestly on the field of elassic letters. It was 
indeed a period of transition, of renewal Co- 
pernicus was studyini^ at Cracow, but lie was 
not the only one who was questioning the 
planets. In the world of philosophy, as of art 
and of natural science, a new fervor was ap- 
parent. 

The revival of learning had its advantages, 
but its dangers were not a few. Against its 
pagan tendencies higher motives were contend- 
ing. In the pregnant womb of those seething 
times,, rival powers, opposing forces — like Esau 
and Jacob — strove for primogeniture. While 
the world was in tliroes so fateful, champions 
were needed in the interest of truth and virtue — 
in the cause of the Church of God. 

Two 'such men stood forth, each destined in 
his own way, to immortal renown. Savonarola 
and Cohimbus were not only conteniporaries, 
they were kindred spirits, tired by the same 
divine spark and burning alike with holy desires 
to lead men into a new and better world of 
thought and action. At the very time that 
the great Prior of San Marco was thundering 
against the abuses of the day and the corrup- 



44 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

tioii and pagan inclinations of Florence ; while 
he was straining every nerve and bending all his 
energies to bring men to tlieir senses, that 
they too might see the glorious light that was 
flooding his own pure soul, Columbus — the man 
of unconquerable will— w^as ploughing the gloomy 
ocean, urged on by convictions that were reali- 
ties to liim and that made liim long to open to 
Spain and to the world regions that for him 
shone with a brilliancy born of his own grand 
faith. Both these heroes, alike in their passing 
honor and in the bitterness of their lowly end- 
ing, resembling each other in the glory that has 
followed their sufferings, were urged on by 
higher powers to their great work. Not always 
well-defined was their end, at least in all its 
details, but Ave may feel assured that Columbus 
and Savonarola knew^ they were in the van 
of a mighty movement. Both were men of 
prophetic mind (inspired, may I not say ?), both 
carried the undaunted heart of a hero, and may 
we not say that both died as martyrs ? Ingrat- 
itude during life was the portion of one and the 
other, and in death calumny has denied them 
even the quiet of the grave. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 45 



ever 

lill- 



It is ail old story, as old as Calvary. N 
can it be more sacredly told than on that 1 
top, and in its glory have they shared who have 
followed in its way. 

Snch a man was Christopher Colnmbus, the 
beantifnl significance of whose names, as Christ- 
bearer and Dove, well become him as the head 
and front and divine instrument of permanent 
Catholicity in this western world. 

The history of the Discoverer illustrates the 
important truth that men who are divinely aj)- 
pointed to nuy great work live a life all their 
own, dwelling in a region apart, with their own 
fiery and consuming tlioughts, their own splendid 
ideals, their own mighty projects. Thither the 
multitude can not go. Understanding they have 
not. How can they have sj^mpathy ? To 
few only, and they also divinely chose 
coadjutors, is admittance granted to the mystie 
abodes where the world's great leaders dwell. 

Thus it was with Columbus. ^N'ature and grace 
had combined to fit him for his work. But 
when the grand triumph came, exhausted nature 
resignedly yielded the crown to her imperial 
mistress, grace. May we not see in this the ex- 



i 

n as 



46 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

quisite chisellings that came with the Master's 
final strokes ? May we not say that the complete 
deprivation of all that spoke of human pride 
or the lawful pomp of conquered worlds, was 
the last oflering demanded of this sorely-tried 
spirit, this oft-chastened soul ? Yes, we Cath- 
olics measure his glory on earth and in Heaven 
by standards that we know are divine. 

To trace the career of the great Admiral is 
not my purpose. Rather would I engage your 
minds with a study of his character, of the 
motives that inspired him, of the hopes that 
cheered him — a fitting prelude to an under- 
standing of his life's work. 

The fierce light of the world's criticism is heat- 
ing on the name of Colundjus to-day, but a halo 
encircles him in glory as he is revealed to us in 
his life and labors and as he stands out a singu- 
larly grand and heroic figure among the world's 
few great men. The majesty of his personality 
is outlined before us, vested with rare gifts of 
body and mind. " He was a man of noble and 
commanding presence, tall and powerfully built, 
with fair, ruddy complexion and keen, blue- 
gray eyes that eiisily kindled, wliile his waving 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 47 

white hair must have been quite picturesque. 
His manner was at once courteous and cordial 
and his conversation charming, so that strangers 
were quickly won ; and in friends who knew 
him well he inspired strong affection and respect. 
There was an indefinable air of authority about 
him as befitted a man of great heart and lof*^y 
thoughts. Out of those kindling eyes looked a 
grand and poetic soul, touched with that divine 
spark of religious enthusiasm which makes true 
genius.'"'' Clothed with the sacred dignity of 
religion, he proclaims a prophet's message. As 
one sent by God, he would go and see and con- 
quer. Unfaltering faith in himself was only the 
refiection of his ardent faith in God. Fast- 
accumulating difficulties only called forth re- 
newed energ}', chastened and strengthened by 
the discipline of Christian suffering. Lofty 
ideals were spiritualized, and a world-embracing 
ambition was sanctified by zeal for souls. lie 
would find gold^he would become rich, power- 
ful — but only that he might redeem the holy 
places, that he might worthily lead a trium- 
phant army to Jerusalem. He would give his 

•*■ Fiske. 



48 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

name to a new world, but that world he would 
give to Christendom with unnumbered souls to 
God. This shows, as Irving says, " how much his 
mind was elevated above selfish and mercenary 
views — how it was filled with those devout and 
heroic schemes which, in the time of the Cru- 
sades, had infiamed the thoughts and directed 
the enterprises of the bravest warriors and most 
illustrious princes." lie accomplished his task 
in the face of untold obstacles, and while a 
throng of wretclies preyed upon his rich posses- 
sions, and an unjust king deprived him of his 
rights and titles, he lay down a broken old man, 
with ingratitude, poverty and abandonment for 
his portion. And as his dying eyes passed, in 
their last fitful gleams, from his own chains to 
his Redeemer's cross, perhaps he caught a 
glimpse, in heavenly light, on that blessed Ascen- 
sion day, of the home of the Father into whose 
hands he commended his soul, with glorious 
serenity of spirit. How Christlike ! Verily, 
for human nature, how divine ! Nor is the 
dignity of his sorrow lessened by the fact 
that Valladolid knew it not, and that the tattling 
chronicler did not find time to record it. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 49 

The gifts and early training of the future 
Admiral were eminently such as befitted his final 
work. Natural talents and natural bravery were 
necessary foundations, and the young mariner 
who dared the seas at fourteen had been well 
trained. Mathematics had been his delight, and 
the science of the stars he had pondered, i^o 
mere sailor was he. To the North he went, and 
to the East and to the West ; to Guinea, to 
England, to Iceland — but always in contempla- 
tion, in research, in preparation. He had heard 
of St. Brendan's land, but to him it was an 
island containing the earthly paradise. This 
land was not the object of his search. '' I am 
convinced," he wrote, "that the earthly paradise 
is on the Island of St. Brendan, which nobody 
can reach except by the special will of God." 
Prescott considers it " singular that Columbus 
in his visit to Iceland, in 1477, should have 
learned nothing of the Scandinavian voyages to 
the northern shores of America in the tenth and 
following centuries ; yet if he was acquainted 
with them, it appears equally surprising that he 
should not have adduced the fact in support of 
his own hypothesis of the existence of land in 



50 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

the West, and that he should liave taken a route 
so different from that of his predecessors in the 
path of discovery. It niay be, however, as Hum- 
boldt has well remarked, that the information 
he obtained in Iceland was too vague to suggest 
the idea that the lands thus discovered by the 
[N^orthmen had any connection with the Indies 
of which he was in pursuit." 

Columbus was a marvellous observer, a lover of 
nature, who allowed nothing to pass unnoticed 
that might eventually aid him. He discovered 
the line of non-magnetic variation ; he first 
described the equatorial current and the move- 
ment of waters between the tropics. " Botanists, 
geologists owe something to him. To commerce, 
to the art of navigation, to nautical astronomy, 
to all the physical sciences, he gave an extra- 
ordinary impetus. How few give a thought to 
all the benefits conferred by him on mankind, 
and to the lasting eifect of his various discoveries 
and theories. Yoltaire told many a lie, deliber- 
ately, but he did not exaggerate, saying that 
Columbus doubled the works of creation."* 
During the earlier years he not only studied maps 

* J. A. Mooney. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 51 



and globes, but made them, too, and beautifully. 
A most skillful navigator, he was every inch an 
admiral long before the Catholic sovereigns 
conferred the title on him. But while he sailed 
the seas he stored his mind with rich treasures 
of general knowledge. As Humboldt says: 
" When we consider his life we must feel aston- 
ishment at the extent of his literary acquaint- 
ance." A most learned man Columbus was a 

giant I would say. Cosmography, history, 
philosophy, theology— these were his pursuits. 
He read, as Hum^boldt declares, Aristotle, Julius 
Caesar, Strabo, Seneca, Pliny, Ptolemy, Aver- 
rhoes, Isidore of Seville, Rabbi Samuel of Israel, 
Bede, Duns Scotus, Nicholas of Lyra, Alphonsus 
the Wise, Cardinal B'Ailly, Chancellor Gerson, 
^Eneas Sylvius (afterward Pius II.), the Scrip- 
tures through and through, of which he after- 
ward made such good use in refuting even theo- 
logians. His writings fairly bristle with quota- 
tions made off-hand from the inspired books, 
from Christian Fathers, Jewish Rabbis and 
Moorish philosophers. 

By natural temperament imperious and even 
prone to anger, he subdued these tendencies 



52 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

and without abating his spirit of high resolve or 
wavering in his purpose, he became a pattern 
of dignified mildness. Religion was his con- 
stant support, and the guide of his life. A 
faithful member of the Third Order of St. 
Francis, he daily recited its office. During his 
residence in Lisbon, it was at the convent where 
he heard mass every day that he met his first 
wife ; and his religious piety was only the 
crown of his natural piety towards his parents. 
Frequently he visited them at Genoa, bringing 
to them some savings out of his scant earnings. 
This deep spirit of religion dominated the whole 
man. It enabled him to overcome almost in- 
surmountable obstacles that had accumulated 
during the years of waiting, hoping, wan- 
dering, pleading. He triumphed over scorn and 
deceit, contempt and treachery; the vicious 
taunts and the pitying sneer that marked him as 
a madman; over the trials of poverty; the in- 
credulity of the learned ; the disappointments 
of kings. Well might he have felt, as he knelt 
in the confessional, and as he strengthened 
himself with the Holy Eucharist in La Rabida 
chapel, on the morning he sailed from Palos 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 53 



Harbor, that he was the ambassador of the Most 
High, chosen by His infinite goodness "to an- 
nounce the enterprise of the Indies to the most 
potent princes of Christendom, laboring unceas- 
ingly for the faith." "^ Well might he write, as he 
always did, at the head of his letters and journal : 
" Jesus cum Maria sit nobis in via.'' His glori- 
ous Catholic faith was ever present — a divine 
aid to his indomitable will, his superb courage. 

What other man would have sailed with such 
a crew, in such vessels, on such a message ? He 
had with him only two of his own countrymen. 
The rest were Spaniards, with the exception of 
two Portuguese, one Majorcan, one Englishman 
and one Irishman. The crew had been gathered 
almost by force. Ignorant many of them were ; 
cowards, not a few, and some vicious. The 
rudder of the Pinta, deliberately injured in order 
to compel a return, proves the disposition of a 
part of his crew. Their mutiny he suppressed, 
not by capitulating to them under a promise to 
return if land were not sighted in three days, 
but by his genius to command. 

Loyal to the Church, he would extend her 

* His letter from Trinidad, 1503. 



54 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

dominions. Devoted to Christ the banner of 
the Crucified was a constant reminder to all of 
Him in whose name they had sailed. 

Like every true follower of Christ, Columbus 
was a true knight of our Lady. His vessel bore 
her name. From Gal lego, " the E'orthwest 
Wind," he changed the name to '' Santa Maria." 
As a man of God, therefore, he could address his 
crew on the night before they sighted land 
reminding them of the many divine blessings 
that had come to them, and of the glory of the 
mission in which they were engaged. Landing 
in the new — the unknown — world, three times 
he devoutly kissed the ground on which he then 
raised the cross — high in air. The inspiration of 
the Cross was with him as he called the island 
San Salvador ; and with him it continued in the 
fulness of his gratitude till he gave the last 
name, to the last discovery made on the first 
voyage, of " Cape Gracios a Dios." " I pray 
you, therefore," he wrote to the sovereigns, '' to 
suffer no stranger to put foot into this land 
except he is a Christian, or to have any dealings 
here unless he is a Christian ; for this has been 
the object of the discoveries I have made by 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 5» 



order of your Highnesses, and I have undertaken 
these voyages only for the purpose of aiding in 
the propagation and glory of the Clu-istian 

religion." 

" When I read of this achievement," writes 
Emilio Castelar, " the most living, evident and 
eltnlgent lesson it bears is the triumph of faith. 
In that bark the undoubting Columbus set sail, 
and at his journey's end found a new world. 
Had that world not then existed, God would 
have created it in the solitude of the Atlantic, 
if for no other end than to reward the faith and 
the constancy of that great man. America was 
discovered because Columbus possessed a living 
faith in his ideal, in himself and in his G-od." 
This sounds well, especially from one who has 
forsaken God. We may not agree with it wholly, 
but we can say that religion was in all and 
through all the work of Columbus; and that as 
his faith was the true faith, and his God the true 
God, and his ideal the Catholic ideal, we can par- 
take of the enthusiasm of Columbus, as Chris- 
tian zeal spurred him on, and as the Christian 
ideal excited him to hope for the day when the 
light of Christ would shine over this new land. 



56 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



With the flame of its fire, with the beauty of 
its ideal, the Christian religion sanctified the 
great work. With glowing light, religion, 
Christ's religion, encircles the hero of the 
grandest of epics — an epic the creation of relig- 
ion ; an epic to be completed by religion — the 
religion of Christ. 

What a series of moving pictures this epic 
presents to the Catholic mind ! 

The early mass at La Eabida ; the humble 
confession ; the devout communion ; the blessing 
of the loved and revered friend — the generous 
and noble Franciscan ; the watching friars, with 
their eager eyes and heartfelt prayers following 
the little caravels; the Ave Maria rung out, 
night after night, from one of those sweet bells 
that carried with their melody the memory of 
some fair shrine; the Ave Maris Stella, the sea- 
man's faithful greeting to the Star of the Sea ; 
the Salve Regina, in pious chant, as twinkling 
stars came out by night or silvery moonbeams 
were poured upon the sea, lighting up its restless 
waves and seeming to soften the splash of the 
murmuring waters as they beat against the keel 
— these were the expressions of Catholic life. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 57 



Who ciiii count the devout aspirations that were 
breathed to Heaven from the decks of the frail 
ships? Who can say how often Admiral and 
crew proclaimed their gentle Lady, the Star of 
the Sea, fairer to them than the moon w^ith 
Heaven's serenest light ? 

Of all this Catholic life the center was Colum- 
bus, bearer of the banner of the Crucified. And 
did not the immortal genius, who beneath that 
banner won a world, have a right to declare, as 
he did in a letter to his friend Sanchez : " Let 
the King, the Queen, the princes and their fortu- 
nate kingdoms, in concert with Christendom, 
offer thanks to our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who 
has accorded us such a victory and so great 
success. Let there be processions, let solemn 
feasts be celebrated. Deck the churches with 
branches and flowers that Jesus Christ may thrill 
with joy on the earth as He rejoices in Heaven, 
seeing the near salvation of so many people 
heretofore devoted to perdition. Let us at the 
same time rejoice because of the exaltation of 
our faith and because of the increase of temporal 
goods by which not Spain alone, but the wJiole 
of Christendom will be benefited." And to the 



58 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

sovereigns : '' Gold and silver, power and honor 
are good; but the main object of my voyage 
has been the propagation and the glory of the 
Christian religion and the conversion to our 
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, of the countless savages 
who have been so long in the grasp of the devil. 
Your love of the Cross I well know, and all that 
you have done for its honor in these, your king- 
doms. By God's grace I hope that your High- 
nesses' souls may be admitted to the vision of 
God, especially because you have dutifully 
spread the holy Christian religion, the religion 
of the Cross, throughout these new regions." 

A second time he sailed from Spain, and his 
flagship was the " Maria Galante " (Gracious 
Mary). Dominica he called the first island dis- 
covered, in honor of the Lord's day. The 
second, he called Gracious Mary, and then came 
Guadaloupe (after the Spanish sanctuary of our 
Lady where he had fulfilled the vow on his first 
return in the name of the crew) ; Montserrat 
(another shrine of our Lady) ; Santa Maria la 
liedonda; Santa Maria la Antigua; San Martin ; 
Holy Cross; St. Ursula and her companions ; 
St. John the Baptist. Splendid record of sainted 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 59 

names and worthy of the devout Admiral who 
had placed his fleets and voyages under the 
protection of her he loved to honor ! To Mary 
he had solemnly vowed pilgrimage after pilgrim- 
age, as the raging storms threatened the destruc- 
tion of himself, his companions and his hopes. 
Humbly bowing to the stroke of God's hand he 
yet appealed to the Queen of Heaven. The 
beauty of his sentiments, his resignation, his 
sohcitude for his crew, his anxious thoughts for 
loved ones far away, his natural and noble de- 
sire that he himself should bear the tidings of 
his discovery to Spain; his humble declaration, 
saint-like, that perhaps God, in punishment* for 
his sins, had decreed to cut him off without 
farther honor — all shine out in the darkness of 
the storm. 

To him the cross was not alone a standard of 
faith and hope; it was also a bitter reality. As 
Irving says, referring to the cruel and dishonor- 
able conduct of the Portuguese governor of St. 
Mary's Island (Azores), in arresting the Ad- 
miral's men on their way to the chapel of our 
Lady, and in attempting to seize Columbus him- 
self: '' Such was the reception on his return to 



60 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATIOX. 

the old world — an earnest of the crosses and 
troubles with which he was to be requited 
throughout life, for one of the greatest benefits 
that ever man conferred upon his fellow-beings." 

Yet the " great constancy and loftiness of 
soul," for which Las Casas praises him, never 
deserted him. Constant, lofty he was in the- 
beginning of his inspiration, as he read the 
prophetic books and resolved to find '' the ends 
of the earth." Constant, lofty he was while 
ignorant scorn and learned mockery piled up 
obstacles that threatened ftiilure. Constant, lofty 
he was to the last; in the griefs of his waning 
days when poverty joined forces with disease 
and pursued him relentlessly. Even then, loftily, 
he demanded his rights, his titles, his honors, 
his revenues, his emoluments, guaranteed over 
tlie royal name. 

Religion ennobled his ambition. lie strove 
not for selfish aggrandizement, but for the honor 
of his name, for the rights of his descendants, 
for the high and holy purpose of his vow. To 
head 5,000 horse and 50,000 foot equipped at 
his own expense, and to rescue the hol}^ sepul- 
chre — this was his high resolve. Sacred in his 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 61 

eyes were all the treasures he might win ; yea ! as 
the very chalice into which was wrought the 
lirst gold brought to Seville.* 

Over such a man God watched in His own 
divine way. Again and again his enemies tri- 
umphed, but even during his life some of them 
experienced the anger of God. The shameful 
end of Alonzo Pinzon, who would have usurped 
the Admiral's honors by preceding him on the 
return to Spain and claiming the discovery as 
his own, is a sad blot on an otherwise noble 
name. However, remembering Pinzon's weak- 
ness, let us not forget his splendid services. 
The fate of Bobadilla who sent Columbus back 
in chains, of Roldan who rebelled against him, 
and of many of their confederates, seems to have 
been a providential visitation. The storm pre- 
dicted by the Admiral, shelter from which cruelly 
and brutally was denied him, by the Viceroy, 
Ovando, in his own port of San Domingo, burst 
with all its fury on BobadiUa and his comrades 

* A portion was also sent to Rome — a votive offering-. It 
was a happy thought that suggested its dedication to our Lady, 
by using it to gild the ceiling of her chief basilica — that of 
St. Mary Major. 



62 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

who were escaping to Spain witli much plunder 
wrung from the Indians. The fleet was scat- 
tered, Bobadilla's vessel was wrecked, and he 
and his friends perished. On the smallest and 
weakest of the ships the share of revenue belong- 
ing to Columbus had been placed ; it was the 
oidy one of the fleet that made its way to Spain. 
The Admiral's vessels were also saved, "an evi- 
dence," says Las Casas, " of an awful and divine 
judgment on the enemies of Columbus." 

In the years that elapsed after the first burst 
of enthusiasm, and after the splendid reception 
accorded to him by the sovereigns, disasters 
came thick and fast. Treachery, malice, envy, 
calumny, hatred, fraud, were plentifully meas- 
ured out to him. Conspiracy compassed his 
humiliation and disgrace, yet few were the 
words of bitterness he spoke, and tender the 
charity with which he repaid them. His grand 
soul magnanimously forgot his indignities and 
still thought of the holy sepulchre. He believed 
the world near its end and, anxious that the 
Gospel should be preached to all, he longed to 
crush the Mohammedan power that enslaved so 
many in error. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 63 

While waiting for an opportunity to continue 
the work of exploration, he compiled a book of 
prophecies, collating various texts from the 
Scriptures, and from the writings of the Fathers 
and the Saints, bearing on the recovery of Jeru- 
salem. He believed himself called to the under- 
taking. He presented liis compilation to the 
sovereio:ns and urs^ed them to confide in him for 
the crusade as they had for the discovery of the 
new world. Nothing came of his efforts. 

Deprived of his own revenues he could not, 
of himself, equip the force he had vowed to raise. 
He could scarcely pay for liis lodging at times, 
nor did he have a trifle for the church offering, 
yet he wrote hymns, religious poetry and a stir- 
ring letter to Alexander VI., in which he told 
the Pontiff how he had longed to go to Rome, 
to present in person to his Holiness an account 
of his discovery, but that obstacles had prevented 
him. On returning, however, from his next 
voyage he would go to Rome and lay all before 
His Holiness. In the meantime he requested 
that the Pope direct the lieads of the different 
religious orders to allow him, from each institute, 
six of their subjects to become Missionaries 



64 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

Apostolic, "because," lie adds, "I hope in our 
Lord to spread His holy Name and Gospel over 
all the world." But it was not to be. God's 
inscrutable ways had otherwise ordained. By his 
courage the path to the new world had been 
opened, and erstwhile cowards soon thronged it. 
Though he longed to continue his work of dis- 
covery, he rejoiced for the good done by other 
good men. They could follow where he had 
led. Unfortunately, the policy of wordly craft 
in the face of such glorious promise as he had 
opened, suggested relief from him and from 
his importunity. Isabella, whom he loyally 
served and chivalrously loved, had gone to her 
reward. The King had little of her generous 
spirit. "It was believed of Ferdinand," says 
Las Casas, " that if he could have done so with 
a quiet conscience, and without disgracing his 
name, he would have utterly disregarded every 
privilege which he and the Queen had granted 
to the Admiral, and which had been so justly 
merited." 

Nevertheless, Columbus adhered loyally to the 
King, following the court and pleading not only 
his own cause, but the just claims of his seamen. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 6i> 

Many of them had been his enemies, but now 
that they were friendless, they could count on 
him as a friend. In the greatness of his own 
misfortune he pitied them. His fatherly tender- 
ness for his beloved Indians in Hispaniola, whose 
destruction he foresaw, added anguish of mind 
to the tortures of the disease that racked his 
body. In this state he begged from the canons 
of Seville, a loan of the litter on which Cardi- 
nal Mendoza's body had been carried, that he 
might suffer less in his journey to the court. 
After parleying and consulting they consented, 
provided he would furnish security for its re- 
turn ! Great Columbus, what a fall ! The litter 
was not used. Worn out he took to his bed, 
and from it in a last appeal to the King, he 
offered to renounce his rights for himself, 
provided they would be allowed to his son, 
Diego. How he loved the honor of his name! 
How his heart bled because a stain seemed 
to rest upon it by reason of his deprivation 
of offices and titles ! Living on loans of 
money, the long days passed wearily. The 
night brought some relief in the loosening 
of his poor cramped and knotted fingers, and 



66 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

then he would take up his pen in behalf of 
his rights. 

But the weary struggle brought only crushing 
disappointments in fair promises, in lies, in deceit, 
in blackest ingratitude. He felt that the King 
was only waiting for his death, for in a last 
letter to Archbishop Deza, he wrote : " It seems 
His Highness does not think lit to fulfill the 
promises which I received from him and the 
Queen (who is now in the bosom of glory) under 
the faith of their word and seal. To contend 
against his will would be contending against 
the wind. I have done all that I ought to have 
done and leave the rest to God." 

Snch is the spirit of the great Admiral against 
whom the calumniators and infamous pigmies 
of our day, in blind, malicious bigotry, have 
joined hands with the cowardly defamers of his 
own day in a dastardly attempt to besmirch his 
name. It is against the Catholic claim, personi- 
fied in Columbus, that the bigots are now raging. 
They would revile the Discoverer, simply because 
he was a Catholic. Irving was not consciously 
a bigot, yet he omits mention of the raising of 
the cross by Columbus when taking possession 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 67 



of the new world. Humboldt did not enter in- 
to the sublimely religious element of the dis- 
covery, and that narrow Scotchman, Robertson, 
snarls out that if Columbus had not been the 
pioneer some one else would have found America. 
But it is the contemporary bigots that we must 
pillory — the tribe of magazine writers, a very 
viper-brood spitting out their venom against the 
man who represents to them Catholicity associ- 
ated with the grandest achievements of the 
race. Pirate they call him, and other vile names ; 
but as my distinguished friend John A. Mooney 
neatly puts it: "The magazine writers who 
palm off the cheap plunder on our unsuspicious 
editors are the only pirates in the case. Have 
an eye on them," he says. " The crime of steal- 
ing good reputations many a scribbler lives by." 
Columbus is hated with an inextinguishable 
hatred, because Catholicity is hated. Harjoefs 
Magazine has, of late, somewhat toned down the 
well-known bigotry of the house, but the Arena, 
of Boston, is positively vicious in the ravings of 
some foul nobody named Dunlop. The Century 
has published a series of papers from the pen of 
Emilio Castelar, in which this Spanish Liberal 



68 THE COLUxVlBIAN CELEBRATION. 

and Freemason betrays not only the national 
jealousy of Columbus, but sneers at him as a 
visionary and a banker, a man who ruined the 
new country by his wretched administration, his 
inordinate thirst for wealth, his duplicity as a 
schemer, his propensity to sell himself, body and 
soul, to the highest bidder, his continual bargain- 
ing. All this is as cheap as it is false. But the 
true meaning of his malignity is understood 
when he ridicules those Catholics who would 
canonize Columbus. Blasphemously and ignor- 
antly he talks of them as wishing to proclaim 
him free from original sin, impeccable, in the 
category of the Immaculate Conception. 

To us this is shocking, and yet such stuff finds 
a ready sale. There are other lying scribblers 
who tell us that Columbus was a tyrant, a slave- 
holder, an impure man. 

Chief among these slanderers we find Justin 
Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University. If, 
in his volume on Columbus, he had confined 
himself to geographical questions he might not 
have diminished whatever reputation he had 
already gained by his " I^arrative and Critical 
History of America; " but he has violently and 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 69 



bitterly attacked the character of the Discoverer. 
Animosity against the Church apparently in- 
spired his baseless charges, long ago refuted by. 
honorable historians. The proven falsity of 
these charges brings into more painful relief the 
unworthy motives of the so-called historian. "^^ 

John Fiske, himself a non-Catholic, rebukes 
the evident unfairness of Winsor. " No one 
can deny," says Professor Fiske, " that Las Casas 
was a keen judge of men or that his standard 
of right and wrong was quite as lofty as anyone 
has reached in our own times. He had a much 
more intimate knowledge of Columbus than any 
modern historian can ever hope to acquire, and 
he always speaks of him with warm admiration 
and respect. But how could Las Casas ever have 
respected the feeble, mean-spirited driveller whose 
portrait Mr. Winsor asks us to accept' as that of 
the discoverer of America? " 

In tliis mean warfare against Columbus ignor- 
ance has been as conspicuous as malice, but over 
Doth, Catholic truth prevails, and all honest men 
are willing to repeat the stirring words of Oviedo 

-In the America?i Cat/iolic QuarfeHy, for October, 1892, 
Mr. Mooney most efFectually disposes of this ignorant bigot. 



70 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

to Charles V. : "A statue of gold Columbus well 
deserved." But, to quote again from John A. 
Mooney : "The world which is so immeasurably 
indebted to him, and which will be indebted to 
him as long as the world lasts, has cast no golden 
statue in his honor. Shameful to say, in our day 
and in our country, on the eve of the first public 
tribute that can be said to have come from the 
people, a purchased band of ingrates has been 
enlisted under the banner of calumny. What 
of malice, w^hat of ignorance, American money 
could not buy at home, has been sought and 
found abroad. A statue of muck these newest 
Oviedos would freely, generously raise to the 
man who has been the greatest benefactor of 
mankind. ' Had he lived in pagan times,' said 
Herrera, ' not to speak of the temples, the statues 
they would have raised in his honor, they would 
have lifted him high up among the stars like some 
demi-god.' Evidently there are professing 
Christians and neo-pagans with meaner souls 
than the pagans of old. But the colossus of 
muck can not stand, and when it tumbles down 
the designers and modellers and founders will be 
as unclean exteriorly as they are interiorly — a 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 71 

consummation most devoutly to be wished for." 
Yes, mists before the sun disappear not more 
quickly than are these charges against Colum- 
bus dissipated by the light of truth. We have 
heard Humboldt testifying to his learning, and 
can therefore well understand the womanly 
enthusiasm of Isabella when she declared that 
he knew more than any other living man. By 
this, too, we understand his influence with the 
Spanish nobility, with whom, as Prescott tells 
us, no man was accounted truly noble who did 
not esteem science. They were not the ignorant 
barons of an earlier day who gloried in theiF 
ignorance, and whose pen was their sword. 

Columbus was a tyrant, we are told. An 
unusual amount of cheap sympathy is wasted on 
the insolent hidalgos whom he compelled to 
obey. Bernal Diaz, a proved conspirator is 
paraded as a martyr. Instead of executing him 
on the spot, Columbus merely sent him to Spain 
for trial — "moderate treatment," says Irving. 
As to the other worthies let us hear Mr. Fiske : 
" A few scoundrels," he says, " were hanged, but 
many more should have been." And Prescott, 
speaking of the first colonists, says: "Most of 



72 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

them were adventurers who had embarked with 
no other expectation than that of getting a 
fortune as speedily as possible in the golden 
Indies. They were without subordination, 
patience, industry, or any of the regular habits 
demanded for success in such an enterprise. As 
soon as they had launched from their native shore 
they seemed to feel themselves released from the 
constraints of all law. They harbored jealousy 
and distrust of the Admiral as a foreigner. The 
cavaliers and hidalgos, of whom there were too 
many in the expedition, contemned him as an 
upstart whom it was derogatory to obey. From 
the first moment of their landing in Hispaniola 
thev indulo^ed the most wanton license in resrard 
to the unoffending natives who, in the simplicity 
of their hearts, bad received the white men as 
messengers from Heaven." 

Tarducci writes even more strongly. '' Wretch- 
es," he says, "just escaped from the prisons and 
galleys of Castile, or saved from the executioner's 
hands by the sovereigns' grace, put on all the 
airs of grand cavaliers, were attended by great 
trains of servants and kept a harem of fair girls. 
And the liigher the birth or rank of a woman 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 73 

the more she was exposed to their cfiprices ; and 
sisters and daughters of caciques, who in for- 
mer years had been regarded witli a soi*t of ven- 
eration, were now" dragged, trembling and weep- 
ing, in the train of some robber or assassin who 
was indebted to the discovery of tlie new world 
for his escape from the gibbet. In travelling 
the}^ disdained to ride on the backs of mules or 
horses, of which there were more than enough 
for their use, but luxuriously stretched on a 
hammock or litter, they were gently borne on 
the shoulders of fainting Indians, and while 
some groaned under the burden of the galley- 
slave, others were forced to hold enormous palm 
leaves over his head to shield from the exces- 
sive heat of the sun a face bronzed in working in 
the galleys ; and still others had to move a great 
feather fan across his face so that he mio^ht not 
feel the inconvenience of the burning atmos- 
phere. Las Casas affirms that he himself saw 
the shoulders of the unfortunate Indians who 
bore the litters all raw and bleeding after a long 
journey." 

Against such scoundrels Columbus was obliged 
to act with severity. Tender pity for such un- 



74 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

mitigated wretches, coming from the Admiral's 
bitter enemies, is a poor proof that he was not a 
good administrator. To us it seems hard that 
the great explorer was distracted from his legiti- 
mate work by the cares of government over an 
almost lawless horde. Yet he proved himself 
an able commander. I^othing could break his 
spirit, nor could he be moved from the path of 
justice to the Indians, from whom he would not 
suffer a pin's value to be taken without compen- 
sation. 

His second fleet had been insufficiently pro- 
visioned, even the list of medicines having been 
cut down. Fort J^ativity he found in ruins, the 
garrison all dead. Sickness confined him to his 
bed, and yet he devoted himself to building the 
town of Isabella, while contemptible jealousies 
were sedulously nursed, culminating among the 
impatient and greedy seekers for gold, in the 
conspiracy of Diaz, in threatened revolt and 
desertion. But Columbus overcame every oppo- 
sition, and with strictest impartiality he com- 
pelled all in health, proud hidalgos included, to 
work for the common cause. And when it 
became necessary to diminish the supply of food 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 75 

lie began with himself and spared not even the 
Viear Apostolic. This man, whose designation 
to the post was a piece of trickery, was an 
occasion of disturbance in many ways. 

On the 7th day of July, 1493, Alexander VI., 
in his solicitude for souls, appointed a Fran- 
ciscan — Father Bernard Boil, Vicar Apostolic. 
The King had asked the promotion of a Bene- 
dictine of the same name; so that the transfer 
of the bulls was not a difficult matter. The 
Franciscans, thus deprived of a deserved honor, 
may derive a grim satisfaction from the recollec- 
tion that the actual Vicar was a conspicuous 
failure. He crowned his perversity towards the 
Admiral by excommunicating him and interdict- 
ing the chapel. Columbus promptly and justly 
retaliated by cutting off the Vicar's rations alto- 
gether till he revoked the harsh decree. The 
injustice done to the Discoverer appears the more 
glaring when we contrast the wretched provis- 
ion made for him with the equipment so splen- 
didly arranged for his successors. And there is 
something more than poetic justice in the fact 
that these same successors under whom the con- 
dition of affairs gradually grew w^orse, were 



(h THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

finally compelled to adopt the plans and methods 
of the thwarted, abandoned, slandered Admiral. 

To sum up, in the words of Roselly de Lorgues : 
" When, after the discovery of the new conti- 
nent, he returned sick to Hispaniola, to find 
insurrection rife among the natives, the Span- 
iards in rebellion, his own orders contemned 
and his subordinates traitors, his position seemed 
hopeless, for he was without troops, money or 
moral aid. j^evertheless, by adroit concessions 
and able temporization, he subdued violence, 
disarmed crime, re-established authority, organ- 
ized production and initiated the prosperity of 
Hispaniola. If that is not administrative abilit}', 
explain the prodigy. How can we doubt the 
administrative talents of Columhus, when we 
behold this seaman become suddenly — accord- 
ing to necessity — agriculturist, architect, mili- 
tary engineer, constructor of roads and bridges, 
economist and a specially able magistrate ? " 

The charge of cruelty to the Indians tliat is 
brought against Columbus, rests only on tlie 
punishment inflicted for thieving and on the in- 
troduction of slavery. As to the first, it may be 
])riefly stated that Columbus abolished the pen- 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 7 7 

alty — that of impaling — recognized among the 
Indians themselves, and substituted for it a dis- 
figurement, partly as a warning to others. 
Stern measures were necessary in a new settle- 
ment. Moreover, let us remember that we are 
at the end of the nineteenth century — not at the 
close of the fifteenth. As to the second count 
of the indictment, history declares that Colum- 
bus never owned a slave. The charge can be 
traced to Fonseca, his bitter enemy — himself the 
o^vner of two hundred Indians, and the abettor 
of Ojeda, who publicly sold others in the markets 
of Spain. 

That Columbus recommended the subjugation 
of the man-eating Carribees by means of 
slavery, we admit. The gentle Isabella agreed 
with him. This was the only method that prom- 
ised hope of any improvement. At most, it 
might be termed an error of judgment as to 
means; and, therefore, I am surprised at the 
severity with which Gilmary Shea refers to this 
event in Columbus' life. Let us remember the 
times ; let us not forget that the evil which so 
soon grew beyond limits ever dreamed of by 
Columbus or Isabella, was vigorously fought. 



78 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

Spanish rapacity was checked and bohlly re- 
buked by Spanish zeal. As early as 1511, Las 
Casas had won concessions from the King in 
favor of the oppressed, and from the pulpit of 
San Domingo, Montesino and his fellow-Domini- 
cans, courageously assailed the highest in the 
land. Las Casas, Protector of the Indians by 
decree of Ximenes in 1517 (confirmed by Charles 
Y., in 1519), was the first abolitionist in Amer- 
ica. For fifty years he was the apostle of the 
Indians, and his labors until his death were in 
their behalf. On the Dominican Order a noble 
lust-re is shed because of tlie stand its members 
took in defense of the Indians. Hallam, a grave 
and solid writer, and a Protestant, praises the 
two Dominicans — Dominic de Soto and Francis 
de Victoria — for their theses in defence of human 
liberty. 

We know also that in 1537 Pope Paul III., by 
Apostolic letter, proclaimed the rights of the 
Indians to the pursuit of happiness and the 
enjoyment of freedom. He condemned slavery 
and annulled all that had been done in its favor. 
Five years later Charles V., issued a decree for- 
bidding slaver}^ under any pretext whatever. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 79 

How do these facts and dates compare with the 
record in our own country? And what are the 
fruits to-day? Look North and South. Let 
Catholicity de(;lare its splendid work, and let 
Protestanism hide for shame. We can stand 
proudly by our record in freedom's holy cause — 
freedom from the thraldom of the body, freedom 
from the darkness of ignorance. 

As Gihiiary Shea writes: ''The Indian tribes 
evangelized by the French and Spaniards sub- 
sist to this day, except where brought into con- 
tact with the colonists of England and their 
allies or descendants ; while it is notorious that 
the tribes in the territories colonized by England 
have in many cases entirelj^ disappeared and 
perished without ever having the Gospel 
preached to them. The Abenakis, Caughnawa- 
gas, Kaskaskias, Miamis, Ottawas, Chippeways, 
Arkansas and the new Mexican tribes remain 
and number faithful Christians. But where are 
the Pequods, the ITarragansetts, the Mohegans, 
the Mattowax, the Lenape, the Powhattans? 
They live only in name in the rivers and mount- 
ains of our land." In Spanish and Portuguese 
America to-day seven-eighths of the population 



80 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

are either of pure or mixed Indian blood. !N'ew 
Granada, now the United States of Colombia, 
evangelized by St. Louis Bertrand, contains 
more than one million civilized Catholic Indians. 
In Canada, where French and Catholic influence 
prevailed, many survive of pure and mixed blood. 
Bear these things in mind as you think of the 
destruction that has come upon the Indians 
under English and Protestant domination. And 
as Americans let us blush to-day for the iniqui- 
tous policy that has disgraced the country by 
its treatment of the few red men that remain. 

From this digression which, however, bears 
essentially on our subject, let us return to Col- 
umbus. He was avaricious, his enemies say. 
The whole tenor of his life proves this charge 
calumnious. He desired treasures, but only that 
he might devote them to religion. His portion 
he never received, but out of the pittance that 
was paid, he gave generously — even to the un- 
friendly seamen. For justice to them he pleaded 
as earnestly as for his own rights. He is 
assailed because he accepted the reward offered 
by Isabella for the one who would first see land. 
He had first seen the lisrht on shore, and as 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



81 



Irving says : '' This was a subject in which his 
whole ambition Avas involved, and he was doubt- 
less proud of the honor of being personally the 
discoverer of the land as well as projector of the 
enterprise." In his will he directed that all his 
debts be paid ; and, mindful, in gratitude of 
kindness that had been done to him, he ordered 
that return should be made to his benefactors, or 
to their heirs if the benefactors were dead. And 
this return was to be made in such a way that 
those who received would not know to whom 
they were indebted. 

How unlike avarice is all this and how touch- 
ing is the case of the poor Jew, of Lisbon, who 
had befriended him in the days of his need^ 
whose name he had forgotten, but whose place he 
remembered as near the Jewry gate ! To him 
also should return be made. Glenerous Columbus ! 

But the most serious charge against the dis- 
coverer is on the score of morality. To Catholics 
who think with delight of his devotion to the 
Immaculate Virgin, and who know the esteem 
in which Isabella held him, this is a painful 
charge. It falls, however, and the lustre of a 
pure name is all the brighter. 



82 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

It is a cruel thing, a vile deed, a cowardly act, 
to stain a woman's name — to breathe one word 
that might sully what she so dearly prizes. 
Beatrix Enriquez is long since dead, but as a 
gentle lady of good old Catholic Cordova, as the 
second wife of Columbus, and the mother of his 
son Ferdinand, we love her memory and we 
honor her name. 

A contemptible lawyer more than a hundred 
years after the Admiral's death was the first to 
insinuate that Ferdinand was an illegitimate 
son. His dastardly thrust was ruled out of 
court, but two centuries later it was revived and 
bigotrj^ and malice sent it on its way. It is a 
choice morsel for the unclean and cowardly herd 
who hesitate not to defame a noble and virtuous 
lady in order to slander great Christopher. 

Thus far we have considered the Catholicity 
of Columbus himself; it remains to speak of 
his Catholic helpers. A panegyric of the Ad- 
miral would not receive his approval, for he was 
a gallant knight, that would omit a generous 
tribute to that beautiful and saintly queen, Isa- 
bella of Castile. The facts we know, and I, for 
one, say, let us be glad that it was a woman's 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



83 



pure smile that encouraged the weary waiter, 
and a queen's royal bounty that made it possible 
for him to sail. Castile she would exalt, but 
she thought more of Catholic interests, and a 
woman's enthusiasm threw a glow around a 
queen's devotion, while a woman's gentle del- 
icacy poured a comforting balm over the bruised 
spirit of our lonely hero. 

Ferdinand's part we also know. His kingdom 
furnished the money. Let us forget his calcu- 
lating ways, the craft that he could not disown ; 
let us forgive him even the wrongs he did 
Columbus; let us, for respect of the dear Isa- 
bella, who loved him so truly, love him too, for, 
with all his faults, he was a good (Catholic and 
a great king. 

Let us record another woman's name in honor. 
The Marchioness of Moya, favorite of Isabella, 
exerted all her influence for Columbus, and it was 
by no means light. 

The Sovereign Pontiff, Alexander VI., took 
a deep interest in the discovery, and from the 
letters of Columbus we learn that he feared the 
Holy Father would be displeased with him un- 
less he fully informed the Pope of all that had 



84 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

been done. Alexander's zeal was proved by the 
early appointment of a Vicar Apostolic for the 
newly discovered territory. It was this Pontiit 
who drew the celebrated line of dernarkation 
for Spain and Portugal, cutting the terrestrial 
globe from pole to pole and assigning the entire 
new world to Spain. But the courts were not 
satisfied, and a new line was drawn by Spanish 
and Portuguese commissioners. By this Spain 
lost the vast territory now known as Brazil. 
Columbus always rejected this line and stood for 
the one drawn by the Pope. Comment is un- 
necessary. 

Another friend of the discoverer was Cardinal 
Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and commonly 
known as "the third king." His name is in 
renown. So, too, Louis de Santangel, the Treas- 
urer of Aragon, and Quintanilla, of Castile, both 
ecclesiastics, were true to Columbus and, there- 
fore, blessed be their names. Talavera, the 
Jeromite, was at first an opponent but later he, 
too, became a friend. 

But higher than these names let us inscribe 
the name of the Franciscan, Juan Perez, Guard- 
ian of the convent of La Rabida. It was he 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 85 

who first introduced Columbus to tlie Queeii, 
wIjo remained ever faithful, who never mocked 
him, as Columbus declared, who gained over the 
people of Palos necessary for a crew, who won 
the support of the Pinzon brothers when all was 
about to be lost through the ignorant fear and 
superstition of the sailors. 

A word from John Fiske is appropriate here : 
''In popular allusions to Columbus it is quite 
common," he says, " to assume or imply that he 
encountered nothing but opposition from the 
clergy. Without cordial support from them no 
such enterprise as that of Columbus could have 
been undertaken, in Spain at least. It is quite 
right that we should be free-thinkers," he naively 
adds, " but it is also desirable that we should 
have some respect for facts." * 

•■• At this stage of the lecture I paused ta comment on the 
utterances of Chauncey Depew at Chicago, in which he spoke 
unjustly of the Church, and also to denounce the ftilse state- 
ment made by a local clergyman who had declared that the 
Church had opposed and vilified Columbus. Some of the 
newspapers misrepresented my remarks, and in a manner that 
showed bigotry and dishonesty, tried to kindle religious strife. 
Forced into an unpleasant controversy, I was obliged to correct 
io;norance and to chastise insolence. The Catholics of this 



86 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



There were other worthy men — lay and cleri- 
cal — who seconded Columbus, but we must con- 
clude with the mention of Diego di Deza, often 
forgotten and generally passed by with the brief 
remark that he was a Dominican favorable to 
Columbus at the Salamanca conference. 

After noticing the career of this illustrious 
prelate, we shall allow the Admiral to tell his 
own estimate of his friend. Long before Ximenes 
was known beyond his Order, Deza was prom- 
inent in Spain. A learned professor at Sala- 
manca, he was also preceptor to the Infante, 
confessor to the King" and Queen, successively 
Bishop of Xamora, of Salamanca, of Jaen and of 
Palencia; Grand Chancellor of Castile, Grand 
Inquisitor, Archbishop of Seville, one of the 
executors of Isabella's will and, finally. Arch- 
bishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain. The 
red hat he had declined, and he died before tak- 
ing personal possession of the see of Toledo^ 
He was then in his eightieth year. A great 

city are aware of the conduct of one paper in revenge for the 
just punishment it received. Its stupidity, bigotry and libel- 
lous statements have brought upon it general contempt and 
indignation. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



87 



statesman he was, a great theologian, a great 
churchman, a college builder, a cathedral builder, 
counsellor to the King. Remarkable record for 
a friar ! 

But I count it not the least of Deza's glories 
that he was ever the Admiral's friend. After 
Columbus' appeal to the sovereigns, the King 
Avould give no decision till he could hear the 
advice of learned men. Talavera was ordered to 
assemble the doctors, before whom Columbus 
would plead his cause. This was in 1487. 
Though many famous colleges were gathered 
around Salamanca, St. Stephen's, directed by the 
Dominicans, was selected for the meeting. Co- 
lumbus had been pre-judged by many who took 
part in that conference, and to his sensitive na- 
ture the ridicule of the ignorant was less painful 
than the learned obstinacy of these counsellors. 

Remesal tells us that the Dominicans alone, ac- 
customed to acute theological disputation, heard 
him understandingly, and Deza led them. He 
brought others to his side, though the confer- 
ence was adjourned without definite result. In 
the meantime he obtained from the sovereigns 
suitable allowance and accommodation for Co- 



SS THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

lumbus during his stay in Salamanca. Four 
years later the commission was re-convened. 
A report unfavorable to Columbus w.as made, 
but Deza's influence, with the aid of others, 
prevented an adverse decision by the sovereigns. 
His part in the final favorable judgment we 
shall learn from Columbus himself. 

Kearly twenty years later, when misfortunes 
had overtaken him, the Admiral wrote to his 
son, Diego : " The lord bishop, Deza, bas always 
favored me, and has desired my glory ever since 
I came into Castile. Now I must beg him to 
occupy himself with the means of remedying 
the wrongs which I am compelled to suffer, and 
of obtaining that their Highnesses prescribe the 
execution of the conventions and grants which 
they accorded me, and that they have me in- 
demnified for injuries so many." 

Always favored me ! Always desired my 
glory I Need I add a single word to these 
notable words of Columbus? 

On returning from his fourth voyage, Colum- 
bus again wrote to his son, Diego, reminding him 
that Deza w^as the cause of their Highnesses 
possessing the Indies, and the cause of his re- 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



89 



maining in Castile, when, as he says: ''I was 
ah'eady on the road with the intention of leav- 
ing it." The tribute to the Dominican is com- 
plete, positive. 

Deza sways king and queen, and with San- 
tangel, Qnintanilla and others, causes the accept- 
ance of Columbus' terms. The indignation of 
the Genoese Deza also allays. The effect of his 
acts we know. " To Diego di Deza, therefore, 
the Discoverer of the new world, within 
eighteen months of his death, attributes his 
return to the court in 1492, and, more noble 
still, to the Dominican he gives the credit of 
Spain's ownership of the new world. What 
Columbus of his own notion conceded to Diego 
di Deza we should willingly concede. All honor 
from America to the Spanish Dominican."* 

To the Archbishop Columbus also commended 
his unpaid and angry seamen. To the Arch- 
bishop he sent a copy of his letter to the Pope, 
lest there be any false interpretations. And 
when, after seeing Ferdinand at Segovia and re- 
ceiving acknowledgment of his claims, he learned 
that the Kins: wished to refer the matters in dis- 



J. A. Mooney 



90 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

pute to arbitration, he manfully maintained that 
the question of his titles and honors he would 
submit to no man, but that in reference to all 
accounts- he would cheerfully leave his case in 
the hands of Archbishop Deza. The dispute was 
not referred ; God took the cause before His 
own tribunal. 

Deza survived his friend more than fifteen 
years. To Las Casas he was also a benefactor, 
fully sharing his generous views and presenting 
him to the King on his arrival from America. 
Here we shall leave the great prelate with the 
Protector of the Indians, with the Dominican, 
Matienzo, then confessor to the King and Las 
Casas' warm friend and helper, and we shall close 
with a few words on Catholicity in America 
after Columbus and in our own time. 

To many this is a sealed book. The story of 
the Mayflower is more familiar, and many a 
Catholic child has been taught Mrs. Hemans' 
cant of the sounding aisles of the dim wood 
ringing to the anthem of the free. I suppose 
if Columbus had been called Winthrop or Alden, 
and if his flagship had not been the Holy Mary, 
he would be in greater repute with a certain class. 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 91 

Be it SO ! Our duty is to know and proclaim 
facts — to compel attention, where bigotry would 
be deaf to the truths of history. 

Seville is the grand old mother of the Church 
in America — Korth and South. We hold her iu 
reverence with San Domingo, established in 1512, 
Yucatan, 1519 (the first on the continent), to 
which that fine old Dominican, Julian Garces, 
was called ; Santiago de Cuba, to which a Domin- 
ican, Bernardine deMera, was appointed in 151(3, 
though neither he nor his Franciscan successor 
in 1522, took possession of the see which was 
first occupied by another Dominican, Michael 
Ramirez, in 1528; Mexico in 1530. Following 
these and depending on them came bishoprics, 
to which we can trace the line through California 
and Mexico. 

Then there were the English Catholics who 
came over with Cabot in 1497. A few years 
later wlien the seventh Henry still reigned and 
before the Eighth had begun his career of destruc- 
tion, the Gospel was preached in English along 
the shores supposed to have been St. Brendan's. 

Later the French came, " Cartier with the 
blessing of the Bishop of St. Malo," and after 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



him Champlain, who founded Quebec. From 
Canada they spread out till the Pacific coast 
was reached, and from Mexico they came till 
the Mississippi was found. The country was dot- 
ted with missions: Franciscan, Dominican, Jesuit. 
Lovers of freedom, true apostles of liberty, they 
carried the Cross and proclaimed the redemption 
of Jesus Christ to all that sat in darkness. Their 
record is one of unflagging zeal, marvellous cour- 
age, i-eady martyrdom. Franciscans, Domini- 
cans, Jesuits, have the honor of canonized saints 
in these western fields, and we Dominicans are 
proud, not only of St. Rose of Lima, and of St. 
Louis Bertrand, but of Father Louis Cancer, 
martyred in Florida, in 1549, the first to shed his 
blood on soil now apart of the United States. 

And education ! Of course we are called its 
enemies ! Monks are used to the stale charge. 
It is true we cannot praise these latter-day 
public schools as models of perfection, but hear 
one word out of liistory : When the English 
were exterminating the natives of the northern 
parts of America, the Spaniards were educating 
the Indians of the South, where they as tenderly 
provided for their relief in sickness and misery 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



93 



as they zealously labored for their spiritual 
welfare. The wretches who disgraced humanity 
in the early days of exploration were compara- 
tively few. The Spanish name they tarnished, 
but it shines, nevertheless, with glory due to 
deeds of undying fame. 

It was a Spanish Dominican, Jerome de 
Loaysa, who came over in 1526 and was ap- 
pointed Bishop of Carthagena in 1537; that 
afterward became first Bishop and Archbishop 
of Lima, Peru. He not only built a splendid 
hospital in his episcopal city, but as early as 1548 
he also established a university there, with all 
the privileges of Salamanca. This was nearly 
one hundred years before the foundation of 
Harvard College, which was commenced on a 
small scale in 1640. 

And the Jesuits ! Miserable politicians de- 
stroyed their grand work in Paraguay, but that 
work adds to the glory which they have further 
increased by untold merits in other fields, espec- 
ially in the Korth. 

There is nothing that can batter down facts or 
make just figures lie; and facts and figures are 
great friends of the Church in America. To- 



94 THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 

day, we are ten millions, they say. ' Spiritually, 
we possess the land. The Cross is everywhere 
— on schools, academies, colleges, on asylums, 
hospitals, refuges of mercy and charity, on 
convents as well as cliurches. Ours is a o:lorious 
inheritance. Great are our opportunities. 
Splendid are our prospects. But are we doing 
all we should do? America awaits conversion. 
There is no ahiding place here for infidelity or 
irreligion. Millions long for bread, to whom a 
stone is given. 

Are we aware of our trust ? Do we realize 
our mission ? Are we anxious that all shall 
know the truth ? Are we ever ready to give the 
lie to bigotry and to overwhelm the calumniators 
who prate about loyalty to Rome and treason to 
the Constitution ? Do we keep in faithful mem- 
ory the story of Catholic Maryland, with relig- 
ious freedom first proclaimed? I^ot the narrow, 
bitter Puritans, nor even kindly Roger Wil- 
liams, but the followers of Lord Baltimore, 
were the pioneers of liberty of conscience in our 
land ! But I fear that we have Esaus among us, 
who not oidy know none of these things, but 
who sell their precious inheritance of faith. We 



THE COLUMBIAN CELEBRATION. 



95 



need more Colunibuses — more Christophers — 
more Christ-bearers — men and women who, 
while they look with reverence on the material 
cross surmounting our steeples and domes, yet 
feel in their hearts the living Cross of Christ, 
and in their lives show forth the precepts of 
the Crucified. 

Great in honor, great in misfortunes, Colum- 
bus ever loved the Church of God, to whose 
glory and triumph, in the name of Christ, he 
dedicated his intellect, his will, his means, his 
life. 

Ere we bid him farewell, let us hope that 
from his home in Heaven the breathing of his 
noble spirit may come into ours, quickening in 
us, with joy and pride, the realization of our 
glorious Catholicity. 



JESUS CUM MARIA SIT NOF.IS IN VIA. 



JUN 6 im 



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